


Senpai: The Progressive Story!

by Tmpp



Category: Senpai EP, Sithu Aye
Genre: Comedy, High School, Manga & Anime, Music, Progressive Music, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-15
Updated: 2018-09-26
Packaged: 2019-07-12 13:29:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15996185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tmpp/pseuds/Tmpp
Summary: Megumi Uehara, known to some as Prog-chan, has just started high school. Her dream is to become the world's greatest teenage guitar hero!There are still some kinks to work out in her plan, however. The complete absence of a contemporary music club, and the offputting nature of her musical tastes, for instance.Can she manage to form a full band before her precious high school life is over?Can they manage to practise even one song out of Megumi's ridiculously difficult repertoire?Can the Bowlboy manage to foil her plans?





	1. High School: The Beginnining!

**Author's Note:**

> Huge thanks to Sithu Aye for his essential weebcore works, the Senpai EP and its sequel! This fic will attempt to tell the story behind the music as lovingly as possible.  
> You can check em out on Sithu's bandcamp at:  
> https://sithuayemusic.bandcamp.com/album/senpai-ep-ep  
> https://sithuayemusic.bandcamp.com/album/senpai-ep-ii-the-noticing

"NO FREAKING WAY!"

The entire classroom turned to stare at the girl who had stood up, slammed the desk, and so rudely interrupted the teacher's explanation on school clubs with her yell.

"Err... Uehara-san. Is there something you'd like to ask about clubs?" The teacher's brow furrowed and her cheek twitched.

It was the first period of the first day of the first semester, and Kamiya-sensei, who had just claimed this class as her homeroom, was already counting down from ten to calm herself down.

"What do you mean the music club disbanded!?" the loud girl called Megumi Uehara continued just as loudly. The tall girl with long, black hair and glasses sitting next to loudness was blushing furiously and decidedly not looking at the center of attention.

"Tone it down, Uehara! I can hear you just fine without yelling!" the teacher snapped.

"Like I said, all of the previous pop music club members were third-years, so they all graduated. As of this semester, there is no music club apart from the orchestra. You're welcome to try to found one yourself, though."

Megumi frowned, but sat back down. She had banked her school life and her entire future thereof on the pop music club being present and active. She would rise from obscurity to stardom, the world's first fifteen-year-old guitar hero!!

...Or at least so she thought. There's no way any other teenager would take guitar as seriously as she does, right? All of the best guitarists in the world were old fogeys. It was about time for the youth to take the stage!

Megumi failed to listen to anything Kamiya-sensei was talking about until the end of the lesson, as she lived her rockstar reverie for the umpteenth time.

"Uehara-san, eh? Are you interested in light music, then?" A voice from nearby broke Megumi out of her trance.

The girl with brown hair in pigtails sitting next to her was smiling at her.

"I'm Tomoe Tanaka. Feel free to call me Tomoe, though."

"Nice to meet you, Tomoe-chan! I'm Megumi Uehara, though almost everyone just calls me Uehara. I dunno why since it's longer than my first name, but I don't really mind either way."

Megumi had been blindsided by the stranger talking to her, so she found herself rambling. Hanako had often told her that she talks too much, but the girl called Tomoe didn't seem to mind.

It's a cool surname! Cooler than Tanaka anyways. So, are you thinking of forming the pop music club again?"

"Ooh, I might join!" The girl sitting in front of Tomoe turned around and addressed the girls.

Megumi pondered for a moment. She had been planning this for the entirety of spring break. There's no way she'd just give up because the club wasn't there.

"Yeah! And I'm gonna make it better than ever!" she ended up almost shouting again and drew looks from some of the students sitting nearby.

"Can't you be a bit more quiet, Megumi?" A voice squeaked from behind her. Megumi turned around to a meet Hanako's blushing face and sharp stare.

"Sorry, Hana." She whirled back to Tomoe and the other girl. "But I really _do_ want to recreate the music club! ...I'm not all that sure about the 'pop' part, but... Oh, and that girl is Hanako Todoroki, we've been friends for a while."

Megumi pointed her thumb over her shoulder. Hanako frowned at the back of Megumi's head, but smiled and nodded at Tomoe and the other girl who gave a small wave.

Tomoe and the girl sitting in front of her giggled.

"So, what kind of music do you listen to, Uehara?" the unknown girl asked her. "Oh, and I'm Shiina, by the way!" she added.

"Oh, a lot of stuff. Like Opeth, Animals as Leaders, Veil of Maya, Tesseract, that sort of stuff."

The two girls looked at each other, then turned to stare at Megumi.

"O-Opezu? Riidaa? Ue.. Ueiru? Is that English? I've never heard of any of them." Tomoe gaped at her.

"You've never heard of Opeth!?" Megumi couldn't believe her ears. How could someone not know the kings of progressive death metal?

"No, never. Have you, Shiina?" The other girl shook her head as well.

"I don't think most people have, Megumi." Hanako piped up from behind her back. Megumi ignored her.

"Well... that's the kind of music I'd like to play... I think." Megumi's plans were deflating ever so slightly.

These two girls seemed interested in the club, but hardly even knew what she was talking about. Surely there were others in this school who understood the magnificence of progressive music, though.

The girls started chatting about music they liked, and Megumi only recognized a couple of really popular band names she'd sometimes seen on the front page of YouTube. Having lost her flow, she settled for listening and nodding mutely.

The rest of homeroom went by swiftly – for Megumi anyways, as she was once again immersed in daydreams about progressive metal concerts starring her.

"Then, the only thing that's left is choosing the class representative for this class."

Megumi's ears perked up at Kamiya-sensei's statement.

"Here! Hana will do it!" Her hand flew up in the air and the other one pointed at Hanako next to her.

Hanako shrunk into her chair under everyone's curious stare.

"Alright, so at least we have a candidate. Any others?"

Kamiya-sensei's gaze swept around the classroom. No other suggestions were raised.

"Then, everyone in favor of Todoroki-san please raise your hand."

The entire class's hands shot up in unison. The inherent class rep-power of a serious-looking glasses girl should not be underestimated.

"It's decided then. I assume you know what's involved in the duties of a class representative?" she asked Hanako, who nodded, still half-hidden behind her desk.

"Alright, then. All the class representatives convene right after this period in the auditorium, so meet with them there. As for this homeroom, we're done for today."

Hanako slithered up from her hiding place and dismissed the class with a stand and a bow. Everyone started slowly filtering out of the classroom.

But Megumi had made her mind and strode straight to Kamiya-sensei, who was organizing her papers into her bag.

"Yo, sensei! I want to reform the music club!" Kamiya-sensei's shoulders tensed as she heard the loud girl's voice again.

"Before that, if you don't stop shouting at me I'm going to stuff my bag down your throat." The teacher turned around and sighed at Megumi.

"Well, it just so happens that I was the pop music club's advisor, so I'm definitely sympathetic to any attempts to resurrect it."

The teacher skeptically considered Megumi for a moment.

"Can you play any instruments?"

"I can play the guitar! And a bit of bass since it's, you know, just a djentier guitar with less strings. Usually. Hanako's the real bass player, though."

Megumi looked around for her friend, but Hanako had already disappeared to the representative meeting. As usual, she obeyed her duties to the T.

"Dje... Chento...? What's that?" Kamiya-sensei stared at Megumi, confused. "Ah whatever, so at least you can play something. What kind of music do you have in mind for the club?"

"I was thinking we'd play at least Opeth, and try to learn some of the cooler songs from Animals as Leaders and maybe like Periphery or Sithu Aye."

"What are those, diseases?" Kamiya-sensei snapped again. "Come up with something that's actually music and I'll consider signing you on as the founding member. After that you'll need two more members to be considered a functional club."

The teacher turned around to shuffle with her papers again. Megumi frowned. An insult towards her favorite bands would not stand.

"Gimme a second, sensei." She bolted from the classroom and towards the music room.

She had stashed her guitar in the music room early that morning, for when the pop music club would later convene and accept her in their midst as their number one guitarist. But as it turned out, no such club was convening anywhere.

Megumi ran through the corridors and then back, provoking the ire of at least two teachers and three class reps. Kamiya-sensei was just about to leave the classroom when Megumi returned, panting and clutching her guitar case.

"W-wait... for... a... second... please!"

Megumi unzipped her guitar bag and pulled out her ancient, beaten up Stratocaster. It had been gifted to her by her uncle almost ten years ago, and had become her very best friend. Well, besides Hanako.

She pulled up a chair, propped the guitar against her leg and dug a pick out of her skirt pocket. Kamiya-sensei goggled at the pick for a moment, and then crossed her arms.

"Alright. Whatcha got?" It was a challenge.

The lack of an amplifier hardly bothered Megumi, since she could hear the music inside her head perfectly well. She passingly wondered whether the muted playing would impress the teacher, though, but prepped her pick against the strings of her guitar regardless.

She strummed out the first chords to Opeth's Ghost of Perdition, and then dove into an impromptu arrangement of whatever licks and solos came into her head. She played for a few minutes, eyes half closed and barely registering anything around her.

Eventually she settled for a Winger-esque finisher solo, opened her eyes and looked up at her homeroom teacher.

Kamiya-sensei was still standing with her arms crossed, but her eyes had unfocused slightly.

"Sensei?"

The teacher started ever so slightly.

"You have fast fingers. A lot of that just sounded like noise to me but you've obviously been practising like hell. Alright, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt for now, but like I said: you will need to come up with some real, presentable music that _any possible audience_ will enjoy. And two more members by the end of the month."

The teacher turned to leave the classroom

Megumi stood up and pumped her fist. "THANK YOU, SENSEI!"

Kamiya-sensei's shoulders tensed again, as she growled and slammed the classroom door shut behind her without looking back.

 

* * *

 

Megumi was standing in the doorway of the spacious music room. The room was full of people.

"Is this... the pop music club?" she asked carefully. Looking around, she couldn't see any guitars or drums whatsoever, although most of the students here seemed to be holding instrument cases of some sort.

A tall boy with glasses and a bowl cut came to meet Megumi at the door.

"Welcome, welcome! You've arrived at the doorstep of the esteemed Tsurikawa High orchestra!" he said in a remarkably pompous voice and bowed to Megumi with a flourish.

"Orchestra? Like, violins and cellos and stuff?" Now that Megumi looked around, many of the hard cases some of the students had with them were way to small to be guitars, and others way too big.

"That is correct! Although we also accept membership from pianists, percussionists and prospective conductors!"

The young man, probably a third year, glanced at Megumi's guitar bag slung over her shoulder.

"Ah, guitar? My apologies, but our classical music outfit usually doesn't have a guitar part, although I'm sure some arrangements could be made!"

"That's fine, I wasn't going to join anyways. I was looking for the pop music club."

The male student's welcoming smile faded away in an instant.

"The pop music club is no more. It's done. Gone. Over. The orchestral club is Tsurikawa's pride an joy!" his smile gradually returned as he gushed on about his club.

"Seriously, not interested. Where did the pop music club rehearse previously?"

The male student's eyelid twitched as he fell silent and pointed to a door at the very back of the music room.

"Cheers!" Megumi left the male student glaring after her and strode across the crowded room.

The door opened up to a small storage area littered with microphone- and sheet music stands, folders full of classical music and various other bits and pieces of orchestral equipment. On the other side of the storage room was another door. A laminated piece of paper with an untidy scrawl was blu-tacked onto it.

"Pop music club"

Megumi smiled and opened the door.

The former pop music club room was just a bit bigger than Megumi's bedroom. In one corner sat a dusty set of drums, but otherwise the room was all but empty. A few guitar stands and a couple amplifier cables lay here and there.

Megumi's eyes fell on a large cabinet sunk into one of the walls. She walked up to it and pulled the doors open. Inside were two positively ancient Peavey amplifiers, as well as some guitar picks, more cables, and other paraphernalia.

"At least we have the basics here, I guess!" Despite being just a bit disappointed, Megumi felt excited at the possibilities.

She grunted as she hefted one of the guitar amps off the shelf and laid it onto the floor. She plugged it in and unzipped her guitar bag. The signal cable wobbled around in the receptacle and the amp gave a horrific screech as Megumi turned it on. She quickly cranked the volume to zero and plugged in her guitar.

It took a bit of fiddling with the old, rickety equipment, but Megumi managed to finally get a proper clean tone out of it. She played some quick passages from random songs, then turned on the amp's overdrive. Another deathly wall of noise issued from the speaker.

"Can you turn it down in here?! We're trying to hold an important meeting for the orchestral club!"

The tall boy with the bowl cut burst in and clipped the amp cable. The cable got dislodged from Megumi's guitar and the amp wailed again, forcing both of them to cover their ears.

"Sorry! I guess this gear is a bit done."

"It's more than that. There's no way I'm going to let the pop music club exist again! I swear on my name as the orchestral club's president!" The bowl-boy pointed at Megumi's face theatrically and stormed out of the room.

"Wow. I guess he didn't like the pop club much." Megumi said to herself and wound up the amp cord. She'd better test the equipment later, when the touchy club president was no longer in hearing range.

 

* * *

 

Hues of orange had started coloring the front yard of Tsurigaoka High, as Megumi changed out of her school shoes and put on her boots. She saw Hanako walking out of a conference room across the lockers with a gaggle of other class reps.

"Yo, Hana!" she yelled.

Hanako glanced around in panic, noticed Megumi and jogged up to her. Some of the other representatives behind her were chuckling.

"Keep it down! We're no longer kids who scream eachother!"

"Guess what, guess what!", Megumi said, ignoring her friend's chiding.

Hanako sighed. "What?"

"I got permission to form the pop music club again! Or well, I'm probably not gonna call it 'pop' since we're probably not gonna be playing pop. Maybe rock club? Prog club? What do you think?"

Hanako took off her glasses and pinched the bridge of her nose, but smiled.

"Didn't take you long did it? You should probably call it something that won't chase off new members. I don't think most people would even understand 'prog club'."

"Hmm, you're probably right. How about 'rock music club'?"

"You're not going to be playing much rock, though, are you?" Hanako had know Megumi for long enough to know exactly what kind of music she would insist on playing.

"No, probably not. But it would be a good lure for members, right?"

Hanako sighed again. She could already see how Megumi's recruitment process would go.

"We only need one more member anyways. Would be cool if we got a drummer, then we could start playing right away!" Megumi played a fill on air drums.

"Wait, _we?_ " Beads of cold sweat rose on Hanako's skin.

"Yeah! Of course! I'm on the guitar, you're on the bass, and then we'll find a drummer and be good to go. Another guitarist would be awesome, too."

"B-but I'm our class representative! And I was elected one of the first-year student council members in the rep meeting just now!"

Having glasses and studious looks had always landed Hanako these kinds of jobs almost automatically. Not that she minded, she quite enjoyed organization and executive work.

She had also come to enjoy playing the bass, though. She had picked it up in middle school, when Megumi had joined the music club. Hanako had been scared that her friendship with Megumi would wane due to less time spent together, so she had bought the coolest-looking bass guitar in the local music shop, and practised until her fingers bled.

What Hanako didn't like was performing in front of others. Whether it be bass or student council work, she'd always had crippling stage fright, and most of the time survived only because Megumi usually blurted out something weird that drew everybody's attention to her instead.

And now, Hanako's best friend was staring up at her with her big, purple puppy-dog eyes.

"It must be a lot of work, but we really need a bassist!"

Hanako sighed for what seemed like the sixteenth time in five minutes.

"Fine. But my class rep- and council work come first. You should try to find a second bass player for when I can't join the rehearsal."

"YAY, HANA! Thank you!" Megumi jumped up in the air and hugged Hanako. Hanako flushed, but couldn't help but feel she'd made the right decision.

 


	2. THIS is the guitar club?!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Megumi forms... something. It's probably related to music.

Megumi was sitting on a folding chair with her legs propped up on top of the portable wooden counter in front of her. She was absent-mindedly strumming her guitar as dozens of people were passing by her small booth.

The chair and the booth were both very minimalistic remnants of the pop music club, as was the large fabric banner propped above. The part of the banner facing Megumi's side said “POP MUSIC CLUB” upside down, and the part facing the bustling crowd said “GUITAR CLUB” in a massive, untidy scrawl.

Nobody was stopping to investigate the crummily put together setup. Most people didn't even seem to notice it was there. Megumi certainly wasn't doing her part to rouse interest either, for she was absorbed in a dank new riff she had just thought of.

For it was the second day of the semester, and the great rally to see which club could lure in the most members had begun. Every student of Tsurikawa High was required to partake in some form of extracurricular activity, and the club with the most members naturally got the best privileges and funding from the school.

Kamiya-sensei had caught up with Megumi as she had been about to leave the day before, and pointed out the dingy supply closet holding the pop music club's old recruitment gear to her. Megumi had arrived early the next morning to set the booth up, and hoist one of the old amplifiers down to the school yard from the tiny room of the ex-pop music club.

The problem was that there were no electrical outlets anywhere near the remote corner of the Guitar Club's booth. So there Megumi sat, mutely strumming a guitar whose weak sound was relentlessly drowned out by the crowd.

“Uehara! Hey, Uehara!”

A vaguely familiar voice roused Megumi out of a weird polyrhythmic passage.

The two girls Megumi had briefly talked with the previous day were smiling and waving at her in front of the booth. Megumi smiled and waved back and took her feet down from the booth counter.

“Guitar club, huh? I guess that’s more general than pop club.” the brown-haired girl with pigtails said.

“ _Tamao? Tamago? Timothy?”_ Megumi wracked her brain, but couldn’t quite remember her name.

“I’m guessing the bands you were talking about yesterday aren’t exactly pop music! Surely one of us would’ve heard of at least one of them if they were.” said the girl with long, curly dark red hair next to… “ _Tonbo?”_ Megumi couldn’t quite remember the other girl’s name either. She sure did talk fast, though.

“Nope, not even a little bit.” Megumi said, deciding she’d find out their names later anyway. “You guys here to join?”

The girls looked at each other, then apologetically at Megumi.

“I’m sorry, but we decided to join the classical orchestra.”

“Did you know you can get tutored for free in an instrument of your choice twice a week if you join, even if you don't know how to play anything at all? The club even supplies the instrument, you only have to pay for replacement parts if you break or wear out something!” The girl with the red curls looked beside herself with excitement as she twirled away playing an air violin.

Megumi grunted and watch the two girls head across the school yard towards the largest aggregation of people, where the faint screeching of violins and intermittent tooting of brass instruments could be heard.

The orchestra didn’t have as much a recruitment booth as a recruitment palace. The classical orchestra was by and far the largest club of Tsurikawa High; almost a hundred students were swarming around the club’s school yard premises, including the already established second- and third year members.

Other larger clubs around included the anime club, the literature club and the cooking club, each of which had a respectable-sized booth of their own. Several dozen freshmen had beelined for each of them as soon as they had entered the gates. The anime club especially seemed to be thriving with new members.

“ _Bleh, what’s so good about anime anyways? It’s always the same unoriginal, predictable high school comedy stuff.”_ Megumi thought to herself as she watched the steady stream of people ignoring her booth.

Megumi’s corner of the yard housed several of the less popular clubs, though the guitar club seemed to be the only one with no prospective new members so far. Even the occult research club opposite to Megumi's booth had seen two interested freshmen arrivals.

“Guitar club? Is that, like, rock music or something?”

An unfamiliar voice made Megumi break out of her djenty string of zeroes.

Two boys were looking from the crude banner up above to the beaten-up guitar in Megumi’s hands. One of them had long hair that disappeared past his shoulders.

“Among other things!” Megumi leapt up from her folding chair and struck a rock star pose. “Keep an open mind and you’ll discover music you never knew you liked, I always say.” She had never said that before in her life.

One of the boys chuckled and the long-haired one nodded in approval.

“So it’s a rock band setup, though? I play the guitar and he plays the bass.”

“Yeah! I play guitar and a friend of mine also plays bass. I don’t think it’ll be a problem, though, but it’d be cool to have a drummer.” Megumi grabbed the small stack of club forms on the counter and handed one to each of the boys.

“I’d love to give you a musical sample, but we don’t have juice for the amp. Come visit the club room on the other side of the orchestra’s music room in the afternoon, though, and we’ll throw you a show! Try to ignore the rudeness from the orchestra members, they don't seem to like actual music much.”

The boys laughed and nodded at Megumi, then turned to rejoin the rest of the bustling crowd. Megumi grinned victoriously. Two new members! If they found a drummer they could start with band practice right away.

“I’m jealous…” a soft voice came from Megumi’s side, this time.

The sole girl at the booth next to the guitar club’s at the very end of the row was staring at Megumi, looking dejected. The girl was extremely short, probably a first-year like her. Megumi leaned forward over the counter to glance at the girl’s banner.

“Pro Wrestling Research Club”

The banner had a close-up of the upper torso and head of an extremely muscular smiling man with a tribal tattoo on his shoulder.

“I’ve tried forming my club for three years now but nobody has ever joined…” the girl continued meekly.

_Three years?_ This girl was a _senior?_ She must be among the top 5 shortest people Megumi has ever seen. _Pro wrestling?!_

Megumi had no words, so she settled for closing her mouth and shrugging at the girl. She was so perplexed by the neighboring booth, and so giddy about the two prospective members, that she completely forgot to do any recruiting for the rest of the morning.

 

* * *

 

 

If the music club had been busy yesterday, today it was positively packed. Every single seat in the attached auditorium was filled, and the entirety of the second- and third year orchestra were sitting and standing at the front of the music room, going through all of the different instruments.

Megumi snuck behind the orchestra club members towards the guitar club’s club room, but was interrupted by the tall boy with a bowl cut who cut her off behind the orchestra.

“I heard you managed to find some new members for your… ‘guitar club’.” the bowlboy sneered.

Megumi wondered how and where the bowlboy had acquired this information. She imagined he probably had cronies spying on every other club, making sure that the orchestra would stay on top.

“I did! Sorry in advance if we make some noise, I have to show our new members what’s what in the guitar club, after all.” she replied.

The bowlboy grit his teeth. “I would prefer _no_ noise whatsoever, as this is a very important day for the orchestra. We can’t have your joke of a club disrupt our recruitment.”

Megumi shrugged and smiled. “I’ll do what I can.” She pushed past the bowlboy and into the dinky, dusty backroom.

The orchestral equipment in the storage between the main music room and the back room had been organized, but a significant load of new equipment had also been brought in. Navigating the storage room with a guitar bag was difficult without bowling anything over, but Megumi managed to survive the short maze.

The first thing she noticed was that the handwritten sign on the door had changed, instead of ‘pop music club’ it now said ‘guitar club’ in the same handwriting.

“ _Did Hanako write this? Doesn’t look like her handwriting, though, and I sure don’t remember writing it.”_ Megumi thought and pushed the door open. A couple of chairs and desks had been brought to the room. It was considerably less dusty than before, even the drumset had been cursorily cleaned.

“I guess we have a cleaning fairy in the club too?” she voiced out to the empty room. Nobody answered.

Megumi muted the amplifiers before trying to connect to them this time, as they seemed very prone to screeching and annoying certain students with a bowl cut. She had just managed to extract an adequate tone from one of the amps, as Hanako walked in.

“Sup, Hana! Check out our premises!” Megumi spread her hands wide and looked around as if showing Hanako a mansion.

“Wow, this is… small. I hope you didn’t recruit too many members, we won’t be able to fit.” Hanako looked around the tiny room once and set down her instrument bag.

Megumi was about to ask whether Hanako had been in the room to clean and refurbish, but she forgot all about it when Hanako pulled out her bass from the bag. Megumi grinned, as it had been a while since the two had played together. “Come on, plug it in! I wanna play with you!”

“Relax, we’re in no rush… I already did my student council rounds today so I’m free for the guitar club for the rest of the afternoon.” Hanako couldn’t help smiling, too.

“By the way, why ‘guitar club’?” she asked.

“The two girls I talked to in class yesterday didn’t seem to know the bands I was talking about, so ‘prog club’ would probably have been a bad idea like you said.”

“You don’t remember their names, do you?” Hanako grimaced and smiled at the same time. “They’re Tomoe and Shiina, please try to remember people more. It’s embarrassing when you don’t.”

"I would've heard them during the roll call tomorrow morning anyway. I usually don't forget after the third time!"

Hanako sighed at her kooky friend, and then nodded. “Guitar club is a good name though. Leaves the genre open.” “ _Doesn’t spook away potential members from the get-go.”_ she finished her analysis to herself.

“Anyway anyway, get your bass on already!” Megumi was sitting on one of the amps and stomping her feet. “The other amp seems to have a low-end connector so it should work fine enough with bass.”

“Alright alright, keep your socks on!” Hanako giggled. She too had missed playing with Megumi, as they had spent the entire spring break at their respective relatives’ places in different ends of the country.

Soon enough the two girls had set their gear up to a volume that hopefully wouldn’t draw the ire of the orchestra. Just as they were preparing to jam, there was a knock at the door.

“Enter!” Megumi called bombastically.

The two guys who had visited Megumi’s booth earlier entered, followed by a rotund, unfamiliar boy and a short girl with violently green hair.

“We brought friends! We’re all from the same middle school and we thought it’d be cool to be in a band.” The long-haired one pointed at the new arrivals.

This is Yasuo, he doesn’t play anything yet but is interested in drums. The girl is Hanako, she plays a bit of piano. I’m Junichi but you can call me Jun, and this is Shinichi but you can call him Shin. The other boy Megumi had seen at the booth before grinned.

“I’m probably not gonna remember your names the first few times. Except you, Hanako, since this girl’s also Hanako!” Megumi pointed at her best friend. “And I’m Megumi but almost everyone calls me Uehara!”

The group shared waves and nods at each other. Yasuo was already pondering over the basic drumset in the corner, and the other Hanako was looking around the club room as if there were dozens of sights to see.

“It’s a really small room, isn’t it?” she concluded.

“Hoping we can upgrade to a bigger one since we have this many members! This is freaking awesome, we already have a complete band! We’re gonna need more amplifiers too. We’d better contact Kamiya-sensei as soon as possible.”

Megumi was beside herself with excitement and rambled on about the club for a moment, before Hanako interrupted her.

“Alright Megumi, how about we play something and plan later?” She played an octave on the bass and Megumi was immediately ready to go.

“Right!” she said and strummed an arpeggio out of her Stratocaster.

“How about we start with something a little… easier?” Hanako asked apprehensively. She looked at the expectant faces of the four new club members and gulped.

Her heart rate picked up and she felt the heat starting to rise from her neck towards her ears. She had gotten so used to playing with Megumi in a small room like this, that she had momentarily disregarded the fact that other people were watching. To evade the rising panic she started playing the first thing that came to her mind.

“Old MacDonald? Seriously? That’s a bit _too_ simple if you ask me, Hana.” Megumi said and raised her eyebrows at her friend. She cranked up the distortion in her amplifier with a loud squeal from the speaker.

“Drop to B, it's close enough.” she said to Hanako and played the first few bends to Periphery’s Icarus Lives. Both Megumi and Hanako usually kept their instruments in a C tuning for easier access to many of Megumi's favorite songs, since Megumi only had six strings and Hanako had four. It made their strings considerably flappy, but both of them were well past used to it.

Megumi had been dreaming of a seven-string guitar for quite a while, but never seemed to come across enough money to buy one. Hanako felt comfortable with just four strings, but wasn't at all confident that she wouldn't cave into her best friend's coercion to get a five-string bass if Megumi ever managed to buy her dream guitar.

With a quick twist of the tuning peg Hanako was ready to go. She always could perform better when Megumi took the lead.

 

* * *

 

“Umm… I don’t think I’d be able to keep up with that.”

The boys called Shin and Jun had eagerly listened to the first few riffs of Megumi and Hanako’s piece, but by the time Megumi had busted out the solo parts - which she had extended to be about three times as long than usual, much to Hanako's chagrin - both of their faces had turned stony.

“If... If we join, are we going to play something… more simple? Like pop or rock?” Jun asked.

“Eeeehhh? But that was like the simplest song I know!” Megumi exclaimed and accidentally brushed one of the amp’s knobs for another loud screech.

Shin’s reply was drowned out by clanking and banging coming from the storage room, followed by a loud swear. The orchestra’s bowl-headed club president kicked the guitar club door open.

“ _Can you not do something about those freaking screeches?!_ ” he raged.

“I’m afraid not, unless we get more members and a bigger budget.” Megumi replied calmly.

The bowlboy’s face was a delicate shade of red as he looked at everybody in the guitar club’s room in turn.

“This club is doomed. I suggest you find a better one, because I’m going to make sure this one never gets accepted. This room belongs to the orchestra club and we will not tolerate your _insufferable noise_ interrupting our practice!”

He turned around and stormed out without waiting for any replies.

Jun and Shin looked at each other.

“Yeaaaah… I mean, if this is the kind of music you’re going to play, I think I’m gonna try somewhere else.” Jun said. Shin nodded.

“I… I’ve found my prince…!” said the other Hanako from the corner of the room. Everyone turned to look at her. She was gazing at the spot where the bowlboy had left with a blush on her face and hearts in her eyes.

Everybody in the room blinked once in unison. “ _Seriously!?”_ everyone except the original Hanako chorused.

A few moments later Megumi was grumpily watching Jun, Shin and the other Hanako leave the club room.

The other Hanako had declared her ambition to become the best pianist in the orchestra in order to win the heart of the club president. Shin and Jun were talking about joining the anime club and forming their own band in their free time.

“You coming, Yasuo?” Jun asked.

“I think I’ll stay. If that’s alright.” Yasuo replied. He had a surprisingly soft voice for his tall and wide stature. “They have drums here. I can’t really afford my own, but I really want to practice. Is that alright?” He turned to Megumi.

“As long as you register as an official club member, that’s fine by me!" Her grumpiness dissolved into a toothy grin. "I hope you don’t mind me and Hana playing prog music, though.”

Hanako sighed and glanced at Yasuo apologetically. It seemed like they would manage to at least officially form the guitar club, if nothing else.

Jun and Shin looked at each other. Jun shrugged. “It’s cool, man. We’ll see if we can find a cheap practice room somewhere. We’ll give you a call if we find one with drums.”

Yasuo smiled. “Thanks dudes. I really want to learn how to drum.”

Shin looked at Yasuo, then at Megumi. “Yeah, I know the feeling. I don’t really understand music like that, but your fingers are ridiculous. I’m all pumped up to get better at playing guitar.”

Jun nodded rapidly and looked at Hanako. “The bass wasn’t that complicated but the way you kept up with that random noise was awesome!”

“Oi!” Megumi shouted and blew a raspberry at Jun. Hanako blushed and nodded at him. “Thanks” she managed to utter.

“Anyway…” Megumi said to Hanako and Yasuo as Jun and Shin waved and turned to leave. “Kamiya-sensei wants us to play something ‘presentable’ at some point during the school year to prove that our club isn’t just messing around. If _that_ song was too much for everyone, then I have no freaking idea what we should play.”

“Maybe sensei would have some ideas? We’ll have to turn in the registration forms and the club petition at some point anyways, might as well ask her.” Hanako said and handed Yasuo a registration paper.

Megumi grumbled to herself. “She called my playing noise too. I bet she’s gonna tell us to play Satriani or something.”

 


End file.
